Using gamification to drive business goals

Gamification is now commonly used across organisations and teams to achieve success, with studies highlighting that capabilities built from fun are retained longer and can be applied to the workplace. We partnered with Sydney Water Agile project management team to understand how project management simulation is used to achieve business goals.

Gamification encourages collaboration, activates the imagination and memory to help develop better interpersonal and emotional skills which are vital to projects. It also demonstrates the importance of being able to leverage lessons learnt in an agile environment (test, test more, and learn). The experience of simulation allows the team to recollect and reflect upon in the future. 

On the surface gamification seems fake, artificial, or like a short cut. It's not.

Gamification drove the following business goals for Sydney Water:

• Collaborative participation. 
• Increased focus on compliance, 90% increase in project staff accessing policy documents.
• 60% cost reduction due to increased communication which minimised inefficiencies. 
• 30% reduction in customer complaints.
• Reduced environmental impact.

What are the top tips we can follow to implement gamification? 

• Layered Simulation: introduce concepts gradually and expect to get better in the longer term. Objectives get clearer with time. 
• Create an “anxiety wave”: getting participants anxious enough to care but not stressed. 
• Allow for (and set up) mistakes: gather the lessons learnt and embed then into future learning processes. 
• Balance the role: make each player integral to the team, encouraging knowledge sharing. 
• Call out specific behaviours: acknowledge through awards/points – penalise through minus points. 

Gamification provides a platform to monitor progress on a project or team to drive behaviours and then measure the impact. It can be a future game changer for performance and culture for organisations when implemented correctly.
 

About our PMI collaboration:

Robert Walters has teamed up with the Project Management Institute to organise Meetup events for professionals interested in learning and developing their skills in today’s business environment. Our aim is to deliver value and shape the future. Interested in coming along to the next event? Get in touch to receive the latest event updates.